The US House of Representatives on Tuesday approved a bill that would target for sanctions Hamas resistance movement and Hezbollah over allegations of using civilians as human shields, guaranteeing that it will become law, JTA reported.

The bill describes Hamas and Hezbollah groups as “repeated” practitioners of an action that violates international law, claiming that Hamas routinely launches missiles at Israel from densely populated areas.

The US Senate unanimously passed the bipartisan bill in October.

The bill was authored by Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Joe Donnelly (D-IN) and was co-sponsored by 50 other senators. It was first introduced this past summer.

“This critical and timely legislation mandates new sanctions against Hamas, Hezbollah and foreign state agencies that use civilians as human shields or provide support to those doing so,” the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) said in a statement Tuesday after the House passed the bill, which now goes to President Donald Trump for his signature.

Last February, the House of Representatives unanimously passed the Hamas Human Shields Prevention Act which condemns Hamas for the alleged use of civilians, including children, as human shields, sanctioning those who use them.

The act, however, emphasizes the efforts made by the Israeli occupation military to avoid civilian casualties, a claim that analysts said amounts to an attempt to whitewash Israeli crimes and terrorism against Palestinian civilians and unarmed protesters, including on the Gaza border.

A four-year-old Palestinian toddler who was injured on Friday during the Great March of Return protests staged at the Gaza border succumbed on Tuesday evening to wounds inflicted by Israeli bullet fire.

The Palestinian Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidrah said Ahmad Abu Abed, aged four years and eight months, was seriously injured when soldiers stationed on the Israeli side of the southern border with Gaza opened fire at protesters in the Khan Younis area.

Ahmad breathed his last on Tuesday as a result of the serious injuries inflicted on his vulnerable body. video

According to data by the Health Ministry, 220 Palestinians, including 34 children and five women and girls, were killed and 24,000 others left injured since March 30 in Israeli attacks on peaceful protesters at the Gaza border.

A number of Palestinians were injured with live Israeli fire as Israeli forces suppressed the 19th weekly naval march in the northern besieged Gaza Strip, on Monday afternoon.

Palestinian Health Ministry affirmed that 11 protesters were injured during the Israeli attack.

The attack was carried out when thousands of Palestinian protesters gathered at the northern borders of the Gaza Strip to take part in protests in an attempt to break the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip.

Some 20 boats arrived to the northern border to participate in the 19th naval march.

However, Israeli war boats opened live fire and tear-gas bombs at the protesters, PIC reporter said.

Commenting on the attack, Ahmed al-Mudalal, member of the National Committee for Breaking the Siege, which organized the naval march, said the naval marches will not be stopped until its goals are achieved, referring to breaking the Israeli siege and allowing Palestinians the right of return as refugees to their original homelands.

The Gaza Strip has been under an inhumane Israeli siege since 2007 and witnessed three wars since 2008. The blockade has caused a decline in living standards as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment and poverty.

Tensions have been running high near the border fence since March 30, which marked the start of a series of protests dubbed “The Great March of Return.”

The deadly clashes in Gaza reached their peak on May 14, the eve of the 70th anniversary of Nakba Day, or Day of Catastrophe, which coincided this year with Washington's relocation of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to occupied Jerusalem.

More than 220 Palestinians have so far been killed and over 22,000 others wounded in the renewed Gaza clashes, according to the latest figures released by the Gaza Health Ministry.

In Gaza Monday, hundreds of Palestinians gathered at the beach in the northern Gaza Strip and headed out to sea on fishing boats bearing signs, banners and Palestinian flags for the 19th weekly protest against the Israeli naval blockade on the coastal Strip.

They were almost immediately met with gunfire from Israeli naval ships stationed just off the coast. The naval officers gave no warning, but began firing on the peaceful protesters as they have every week for the past nineteen Mondays of protest.

Among those injured Monday were a Palestinian paramedic who was hit with a tear gas canister, and a young Palestinian man who was struck with a live bullet while participating in the protest.

Local sources report that the Palestinian protesters began their ‘naval march’ in the northernmost beach in Gaza, near the border with Israel. Before they could make it very far into the water, the Israeli forces used live ammunition, tear gas and concussion grenades to suppress the non-violent demonstration.

Palestinians and international supporters have made numerous attempts to break the Israeli naval blockade, which was imposed in June 2007. Protests have also attempted to bring international attention to the plight of the people of Gaza, who are facing 60% unemployment and the impossibility of maintaining an economy and livelihood under the crippling Israeli siege.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, “Israel has imposed movement restrictions on the Gaza Strip since the early 1990’s. Restrictions intensified in June 2007… when Israel imposed a land, sea and air blockade on Gaza, citing security concerns.

Despite relaxation of some blockade-related restrictions in recent years, 1.8 million Palestinians in Gaza remain ‘locked in’, denied free access to the remainder of the territory and the outside world. The blockade has undermined the living conditions in the coastal enclave and fragmented the oPt and its economic and social fabric. The isolation of Gaza has been exacerbated by restrictions imposed by the Egyptian authorities on Rafah, its single passengers [sic] crossing.”

In August, when the Boat March of Return began, one of the protest organizers, Adham Abu Selmeya, told reporters from the Reuters News Agency, “We want the world to see the reality of the blockade and the suffering of the people of Gaza, and we will not accept anything less than lifting the blockade once and for all”.

Israeli navy ships attacked, Monday, Palestinian fishing boats in Gaza territorial waters, near Rafah, in the southern part of the coastal region, and abducted two fishermen.

Media sources in Gaza said the soldiers fired many live rounds at the boats, and used water cannons, while the fishermen were only four nautical miles from the shore.

They added that the navy then abducted two young fishermen, identified as Nasser Ahmad an-Nada, 24, and Mohammad Jassem Saidam, 20, and confiscated their boat.

The attack is part of ongoing violations against the Palestinians in the besieged and improvised Gaza Strip.

Suck attacks frequently target fishermen, in addition to farmers and workers on lands close to the perimeter fence.

Many Palestinians fishermen, farmers and workers have been killed, hundreds injured and abducted by the navy and the soldiers.

Last month, the navy killed a Palestinian fisherman, identified as Nawwaf Ahmad al-Attar, 20, in Gaza waters, west of Beit Lahia, in the northern part of the coastal region.

In early October of this year, the Israeli army shot and killed an elderly Palestinian farmer, identified as Ibrahim Ahmad al-Arrouqi, 78, in the central part of the Gaza Strip, while he was working on his land.

A former director of Shin Bet internal security service and Minister of Internal Security, Dichter said that the Israeli army is prepared to use all means, including lethal force to deter the Palestinians protesters.

Since March 31, thousands of peaceful Palestinian protesters have been staging protests along the eastern fence of the Gaza Strip, calling for lifting the 12-year-old Israeli siege and reinforcing the right of the Palestinian refugees to return to their homes.

Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan repeatedly referred to the protesters killed in Gaza as “Nazis,” saying that there were no demonstrations, just “Nazi anger.”

He later added, according to Days of Palestine: “The number [of peaceful Palestinian protesters] killed does not mean anything because they are just Nazis, anyhow.”

Israeli naval forces opened fire towards Palestinian fishermen, west of Rafah City and Khan Younis City, in the southern besieged Gaza Strip, on Sunday.

A Ma'an reporter said that Israeli naval forces repeatedly opened fire at fishermen within the permitted fishing zone, forcing them back to shore.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces stationed at the Kissufim military site, east of the al-Qarrara town in southern Gaza, opened fire at Palestinian shepherds, while working in their lands.

No injuries were reported from both incidents.

The reason for both shootings remained unknown.

Israeli military incursions inside the besieged Gaza Strip and near the "buffer zone," which lies on both land and sea sides of Gaza, have long been a near-daily occurrence.

The Israeli army also regularly detains and opens fire on unarmed Palestinian fishermen, shepherds, and farmers along the border areas if they approach the buffer zone, as the authorities have not made clear the precise area of the designated zone.

The practice has in effect destroyed much of the agricultural and fishing sector of the blockaded coastal enclave, which has been under an Israeli air, land and sea blockade for nearly 12 years.

At least 33 Palestinians were injured on Friday when the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) heavily opened fire at the peaceful protesters taking part in the Great March of Return on Gaza border.

The PIC reporter said that hundreds of Palestinians marched along the border fence east of Gaza for the 37th week of the Great March of Return despite the cold and stormy weather.

The Higher National Committee for the Great March of Return and Breaking the Siege early on Friday called for the largest participation the border march which is set to commemorate the anniversary of the First Intifada.

Member of the committee and the Political Bureau of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Talal Abu Zarifa, said in press statements that the Palestinians are determined to continue their protests until they achieve their goals, particularly a complete halt of the Israeli blockade on Gaza.

"Today we take part in the Great March of Return armed with international legitimacy after the failure of the US draft resolution condemning the resistance at the United Nations General Assembly," he added.

The Palestinians have been protesting since 30 March along the border fence between the Gaza Strip and the 1948 occupied territories to demand an end for the 13-year-long blockade on the enclave and call for the return of refugees to their lands from which they were expelled in the 1948 war.

Since the start of the border protests, 247 Palestinians have been killed by the IOF, while 22,000 injured, 500 of whom are in critical conditions.